Device for separating imperfect cigarettes from a procession of cigarettes



A ril 18, 1967 G. F. w. POWELL 3,314,538

DEVICE FOR SEPARATING IMPERFECT CIGARETTES FROM A PROCESSION OF CIGARETTES 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 2, 1965 INVENTOR ra on FM Rum.

BY l/ fionl (3/1, 7fI;IJ/ w Unison ATTORNEYS April 18, 1967 G. F. w. POWELL 3,314,538

DEVICE FOR SEPARATING IMPERFECT CIGARETTES FROM A PROCESSION OF CIGARETTES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 2, 1965 INVENTOR Gym-Jon QW. PouJE\\..

wnmm: ATTORN April 18, 1967 G. F. w. POWELL 3,314,538

DEVICE FOR SEPARATING IMPERFECT CIGARETTES FROM A PROCESSION OF CIGARETTES Filed June 2, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR Qareon ?=w&\

\mnsem, CA1. q m ua UATsoN- ATTOR NEYS United States Patent 3,314,538 DEVICE FOR SEPARATING IMPERFECT CIGA- RETTES FROM A PROCESSION OF CIGARETTES Gordon Francis Wellington Powell, Deptford, London, England, assignor to The Molins Organisation Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Filed June 2, 1965, Ser. No. 460,660 Claims priority, application Great Britain, July 20, 1964, 29,482/ 64 4 Claims. (Cl. 209-74) This invention concerns a device for separating imperfect cigarettes from a procession of cigarettes.

In the manufacture of cigarettes it is common to convey cigarettes in the flutes of rotating drums. In continuous rod cigarette-making machines, for example, the cigarettes emerging from the cut-off often pass into the flutes of a drum which eventually deposits them on the catcher band of the machine. In other methods of manufacture, for instance, for filter tip cigarettes, cigarettes are conveyed by fluted drums during the process of attaching mouthpieces to them. Usually two cigarettes are joined to a double-length mouthpiece, disposed between them, and the assemblage is then bisected to provide two filter-tip cigarettes.

In this specification the word cigarettes includes all such finished, or partial-products, embodying a piece of cigarette rod.

It is also common in the manufacture of cigarettes to provide detectors which detect various defects in cigarette rod, whether continuous, or cut into short lengths, and to provides devices for rejecting those cigarettes found to be defective, from the whole quantity being produced.

It has been proposed to feed cigarettes into fluted drums provided with devices in each flute which test the cigarettes by radiation gauge methods or dielectric measurement methods and to provide means for removing cigarettes found to be defective from the flutes by various devices. In one such arrangement the defective cigarettes are removed from the flutes by suction nozzles movable past the fluted drum and actuated by the operation of the testing devices to apply suction to the nozzles for this purpose. Cigarettes removed by any such devices are moved out of the flutes at one position in the drum revolution and the remainder are delivered by the drum at another position, usually at a later stage in the drum revolution.

It has been proposed in United States Application Serial No. 369,447, filed May 22, 1964, by David T. N. Williamson and Douglas William B. Muir, now US. Patent No. 3,250,249, to provide a device for detecting the presence of electrically-conductive particles, such as pieces of metal, in a continuous rod so that, inter alia, detected portions of the rod, corresponding to eventual cigarette lengths, are noted, and the resulting cigarettes can be delivered to a special output channel so as to separate them from cigarettes free of such material.

The present invention provides means for effecting such separation but it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this particular use and that it can be employed in conjunction with any kind of detector.

According to the invention there is provided a device for separating imperfect cigarettes from a procession of cigarettes and for use with a detector for detecting imperfections in cigarettes, comprising a fluted drum and means for feeding cigarettes to the flutes thereof and means for causing satisfactory cigarettes to be conveyed by the drum to one delivery position and discharged at such position and means, operating in response to a detector signal, for causing imperfect cigarettes to be discharged from the drum at another position, wherein the cigarettes are held in the flutes by suction through holes 3,314,538 Patented Apr. 18, 1967 in the flutes, and satisfactory cigarettes are thus conveyed to the desired position of discharge where the suction is cut off so that the cigarettes can leave the flutes, but means is provided, operative in response to the detector signal, for stopping suction to flutes containing imperfect cigarettes so that these can leave the flutes at another position, in advance of said desired position of discharge.

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a longitudinal axial section of a rotatable fluted drum suitable for use with the invention; and as applied to a continuous-rod cigarette-making machine, the view including a section of a fixed valve body and valve plate, taken on the line 1-1 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2 is an end elevation of FIGURE 1, looking in the direction of arrow A, and also shows some additional parts.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of the drum shown in FIGURE 1 on the line 3-3 but showing some of the additional parts shown in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4, FIG- URE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a front elevation of a valve plate used in a valve system for controlling suction in the flutes of the drum.

FIGURE 6 is a side elevation of the plate shown in FIGURE 5.

FIGURE 7 is a front elevation of a valve body with which the plate of FIGURE 5 cooperates.

FIGURE 8 is a view of FIGURE 7, looking in the direction of the arrow B.

FIGURES 9 to 12 are local sections of FIGURE 5 on the lines 9-9: 10-10: 11-11 and 12-12 respectively.

Referring first to FIGURES l to 4, the fluted drum 10 shown, is rather similar to that shown and described in United States Patent No. 3,039,589, issued June 19, 1962, in the names of Desmond Walter Molins and Cyril Best. Cigarettes are fed into the flutes at the top of the drum, as described in said specification.

The flutes have holes 12 through which suction can be exerted as explained below. In FIGURE 1 the holes 12 in alternate flutes are shown in different positions. This is because the fluted drum shown is for collecting cigarettes in two side by side rows on a catcher band 35. Alternate cigarettes are therefore arrested at different positions along the drum flutes as explained in the patent referred to above. Further, as will be clear from FIG- URE 3, the holes 12 are radial to the centre of the drum and counterbored but in a modified form the holes are not counterbored and are displaced from the central plane of the flutes so that they are nearer to that wall of a flute which is leading as the drum rotates to compensate for the tendency of the cigarettes to roll down towards said wall as they move down with the revolving drum. A guide or shroud 11 keeps the cigarettes in place in the flutes, as the drum rotates, for a short distance from the feeding position. This is because suction is stopped in flutes containing defective cigarettes near the lower end of this guide and the guide prevents them from being prematurely thrown out by the drum rotation.

The drum is modified as compared with the drum in said patent by the fitting of an internal sleeve 13 which is grooved longitudinally so as to provide air passages 14. A suction pipe 15 can communicate with these passages at times through a stationary valve body 16 and a stationary valve plate 17. One face of the valve body 16 is flat and the body is fixed to the valve plate with this face in contact with a first flat face of the valve plate, a second flat face of the plate being in rubbing contact with a flat face at the end of the drum 10. The valve plate has three long ports 17A, 17B and 17C, of arcuate form, concentric with the axis of the fluted drum and disposed as best seen in FIGURE 5.

Referring now to FIGURES 5 and 6, the plate 17 has a deep depression 18 on its front or first fiat face and the port 17A extends from the face of this depression through the plate to the rear or second flat face. The port 178 extends right through the plate from the front face to the rear face. The port 17C is shallow and extends only a short distance into the plate from the rear face but a hole 19 connects this port to the front face of the plate.

The plate has a further narrow depression 20 which is as deep as 18, and a hole 21 constituting a small intermediate port between the arcuate ports 17A and 17B extends from the face of this depression to the rear face of the plate.

The valve body 16, FIGURES 7 and 8, has a cylindrical bore 22, in which a piston valve 23 is movable, and from the hole 22 to the flat face, FIGURE 1, of the valve body, two ports 22A, 22B extend, these ports continuing into the hole in the body in which the suction pipe 15 is fixed. A port 22C extends obliquely from the hole in the body in which pipe 15 is fixed, to the flat face of the body. The hole 19 in valve plate 17 is in line with a similar hole in the valve body, marked 19A.

The valve body is fixed to the valve plate by screws, such as the one shown at 24, FIGURE 4, and the two members are pressed against the fiat face 25 of the fluted drum in rubbing contact therewith. The pressure is exerted by a spring 26 which abuts against a blind hole in a fixed bracket 27. Thus as the drum rotates, when driven by a gear wheel 28, FIGURE 1, the passages 14 communicate in turn with the various ports and holes mentioned above, through holes 29 in the drum which lead to the passages 14, the functioning of these parts being described in more detail presently. The valve body 16 also has a hole 30 which extends right through it and connects the cylindrical bore 22 to atmosphere when the piston valve is suitably disposed in the bore 22. A rod 31 which is operated by a solenoid (not shown) can move the piston valve upwards to the position shown in FIGURE 1 and a spring 32 returns the piston valve when the solenoid is de-energised. The piston valve is shown in the upper position, which it occupies when defective cigarettes are to be discharged from the flutes. Assuming however that the piston valve is in its lower position the operation is as follows:

Cigarettes fed in turn to the top flute of the drum are carried round as the drum rotates in the direction of the arrow, FIGURE 2. While the cigarettes are satisfactory as determined by a detector, such as the one referred to, the piston valve remains in the lower position and the cigarettes are held in the flutes as they pass round beneath the shroud 11 and the following unshrouded space by suction through the port 17A, as the grooves 14 of the sleeve 13 communicates with the suction pipe through holes 29, port 17A, depression 18, port 22A, and a recessed part 33 of the piston valve. Then as the drum rotates the suction continues through the intermediate port 21, depression 20, port 22B and a recessed portion 34 of the piston valve. Thereafter suction continues through port 17Bwhich is in direct communication with pipe 15 through the oblique port 22C whose end adjacent the first fiat face of the valve plate 17 overlaps port 17B, as can be seen in FIGURE 2. Thus the cigarettes are held in the flutes by suction until a flute ceases to be in communication with the left-hand end, FIGURE 2, of port 178. Immediately afterwards, the flute in question is put in direct communication with the atmosphere through the hole 19A in the valve body, hole 19 in plate 17 and the shallow port 17C which connects with the last said hole.

The purpose of port 170 is to ensure that cigarettes are positively released from the flutes immediately after the latter pass the left-hand end of port 178. The drum rotates quickly on a modern machine and there is a tendency for a cigarette to remain in a flute after suction has nominally ceased, because the suction holds them very firmly. By opening the flute to atmosphere through port 17C the effective release of a cigarette is secured.

Thus satisfactory cigarettes fall on to a catcher band 35 and are carried away in the direction of the arrow, FIG- URE 2.

If, however, cigarettes are found to be defective by the detector, a solenoid is energised and the rod 31 is pushed upwards to'bring the piston valve 23 into the position shown in FIGURE 1. In this case the port 17A is put into communication with the atmosphere through the depression 18, the portion of the hole 30 adjacent the first flat face of the valve plate, the recess 33 in the piston valve and the remainder of the hole 30 and so no suction is exerted on flutes passing the port 17A. As noted earlier, flutes in this region are shrouded for the reasons given but as soon as a flute in which suction has ceased passes the lower end of the shroud 11, the cigarette rolls out and is guided by a plate 36 down to a waste box or the like.

The choice of the distance between the neighbouring ends of the arcuate ports 17A and 17B is somewhat restricted. It should be as small as possible so that suction in a flute is maintained with an almost imperceptible break but then there is a risk that as the holes 29 in the drum pass between these two ports they might overiap the neighbouring ends of the ports if the latter were too close together and suction in port 17B might be adversely affected at times when port 17A is open to atmosphere. The intermediate port 21 is therefore provided to isolate port 17B from port 17A when the latter is open to atmosphere so as to overcome this risk. When the piston valve is pushed to the upper position and the port 17A is connected to atmosphere the port 21 is closed off from the suction system by the full diameter of the piston valve, see FIGURE 1. As a single defective cigarette will cause the piston valve 23 to be moved upward, possibly two, or even three, satisfactory cigarettes will aso be discarded but this is not important.

It will be understood that operation of the piston valve is subject to the time delay normally used to cover the movement of a cigarette between the detecting position and the position where an imperfect cigarette is to be discarded.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A device for separating imperfect cigarettes from a procession of cigarettes and for use with a detector which produces a signal on the detection of an imperfect cigarette, comprising a rotatably mounted fluted drum having a flat face at one end thereof, means for feeding cigarettes to the flutes thereof, a delivery position at which satisfactory cigarettes are discharged from the drum, a second position at which imperfect cigarettes are discharged from the drum, means defining at least one hole in each flute by which a cigarette can be suctionally held thereto, means defining air passages in the interior of the drum, one end of each air passage communicating with the hole of one flute and the other end defining an opening on the flat face of the drum, said openings together defining a ring concentric with the axis of the drum, a stationary valve device having a fiat face, the valve device and the drum being so disposed that their flat faces are in rubbing contact, a suction duct in the valve device, means defining communicating passages between the flat face of the valve device and the suction duct and a movable valve piece in the valve device operable in response to a signal from said detector whereby suction can be regulated in each flute as the drum rotates so that imperfect cigarettes are discharged at the second position and acceptable cigarettes at the delivery position.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which the vaive device comprises a valve body having a cylindrical bore and a piston valve movable in said bore, the valve body having a cylindrical bore and a piston valve movable in said bore, the valve body having a flat face, a valve plate fixed to the valve body and having two flat faces parallel to one another the first of these faces being in contact with the flat face of the valve body, and the second flat face being that in rubbing contact with the flat face of the drum end, said valve plate having a depression in the first flat face and a first arcuate port concentric with the drum axis and extending from the depression to the second flat face, a second arcuate port closely following the first and extending from the first flat face to the second fiat face of the valve plate, a port extending from the flat face of the valve body to the cylindrical bore and into the suction duct, a recess in the piston valve adjoining said port when the piston valve is in its normal position and satisfactory cigarettes are passing whereby suction is exercised in a flute of the drum from the moment its associated hole reaches the first arcuate port until said associated hole passes beyond the end of said port, a second port extending from the flat face of the valve body, Where it joins the second arcuate port, to the suction duct to continue suction in the flute until the associated hole passes the end of the second arcuate port whereupon a satisfactory cigarette may fall from the flute, the valve body having a hole extending from the fiat face into the cylindrical bore and thence to the exterior of the body so that when the piston valve is moved in response to a detector signal the recess is aligned with the hole through the valve body and the first arcuate port is put in communication with the atmosphere through the depression in the valve body, the recess in the piston valve and said hole and the flutes passing by the first arcuate port are no longer subjected to suction and defective cigarettes may fall from them.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2 further comprising a hole through the valve plate and a hole aligned with the first said hole and passing through the valve body to its exterior, a third arcuate port formed in the second fiat face of the valve plate and extending from the first said hole to a position near the end of the second arcuate port,

whereby flutes leaving the said end, and no longer subject 4 to suction, are forthwith put into communication with atmosphere through the third arcuate port and the aligned holes, to ensure that cigarettes are positively released from the flutes immediately their respective holes in the flat end face of the drum pass beyond the second arcuate port.

4. A device as claimed in claim 2 comprising an intermediate port between the neighbouring ends of the first and second arcuate ports, a second recess in the piston valve, and a second depression in the first flat face of the valve plate with the intermediate port extending from the second depression to the second fiat face of the valve plate, the second depression being so located that when the piston valve is in its normal position said second recess is in communication with the intermediate port through the second depression, a port in the valve body in line with the second recess in the piston valve when the latter is in its normal position and extending from the flat face of the body through the cylindrical bore and into the interior of the suction duct so that suction in the flutes is continued through the intermediate port, said port in the valve body and the second recess in the piston valve but when the piston valve is moved in response to a de tector signal the intermediate port is shut off from the suction duct, whereby the intermediate port normally serves to continue suction in the flutes as the associated holes in the end face of the drum pass from the end of the first arcuate port to the beginning of the second arcuate port but isolates the first arcuate port from the second arcuate port so that suction in the second arcuate port is not adversely affected when the first arcuate port is open to atmosphere.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,001,528 9/1961 Schubert 131-94 3,058,588 10/1962 Palmquist 209-74 3,237,444 3/,1966 Kaeding et al. 7338 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,113,658 9/1961 Germany.

M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner. ALLEN KNOWLES, Examiner. 

1. A DEVICE FOR SEPARATING IMPERFECT CIGARETTES FROM A PROCESSION OF CIGARRETTES AND FOR USE WITH A DETECTOR WHICH PRODUCES A SIGNAL ON THE DETECTION OF AN IMPERFECT CIGARETTE, COMPRISING A ROTATABLY MOUNTED FLUTED DRUM HAVING A FLAT FACE AT ONE END THEREOF, MEANS FOR FEEDING CIGARETTES TO THE FLUTES THEREOF, A DELIVERY POSITION AT WHICH SATISFACTORY CIGARETTES ARE DISCHARGED FROM THE DRUM, A SECOND POSITION AT WHICH IMPERFECT CIGARETTES ARE DISCHARGED FROM THE DRUM, MEANS DEFINING AT LEAST ONE HOLE IN EACH FLUTE BY WHICH A CIGARETTE CAN BE SUCTIONALLY HELD THERETO, MEANS DEFINING AIR PASSAGES IN THE INTERIOR OF THE DRUM, ONE END OF EACH AIR PASSAGE COMMUNICATING WITH THE HOLE OF ONE FLUTE AND THE OTHER END DEFINING AN OPENING ON THE FLAT FACE OF THE DRUM, SAID OPENINGS TOGETHER DEFINING A RING CONCENTRIC WITH THE AXIS OF THE DRUM, A STATIONARY VALVE DEVICE HAVING A FLAT FACE, THE VALVE DEVICE AND THE DRUM BEING SO DISPOSED THAT THEIR FLAT FACES ARE IN RUBBING CONTACT, A SUCTION DUCT IN THE VALVE DEVICE, MEANS DEFINING COMMUNICATING PASSAGES BETWEEN THE FLAT FACE OF THE VALVE DEVICE AND THE SUCTION DUCT AND A MOVABLE VALVE PIECE IN THE VALVE DEVICE OPERABLE IN RESPONSE TO A SIGNAL FROM SAID DETECTOR WHEREBY SUCTION CAN BE REGULATED IN EACH FLUTE AS THE DRUM ROTATES SO THAT IMPERFECT CIGARETTES ARE DISCHARGED AT THE SECOND POSITION AND ACCEPTABLE CIGARETTES AT THE DELIVERY POSITION. 